The University of the Third Age is very much an international organisation but with strong roots in the community it serves. There are branches in Australia, Cyprus, New Zealand, South Africa and Poland – to name but a few locations. It is particularly strong in France, where it was launched by Toulouse University in 1975.

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U3A was founded in 1981 by three friends, all distinguished in their own field and embarking on the "third age" of their lives. Peter Lazlett, Eric Midwinter and Michael Young. They met in Cambridge to discuss the intellectual and cultural prospects for older people. France had already set up in 1972 their Universités du Troisieme Age and this was their model. In 1983 they hosted a conference with a view to setting up a U3A branch in the United Kingdom. During the conference an interview was given to a local radio station, prompting over 400 letters of interest. Cambridge U3A was born. From the outset, the co founders rejected the idea of direct association with any University. They preferred what we have today, each local U3A branch fully independent, self funding and democratically managed. At the initial conference it was agreed that the University of the Third Age should be open to all people in their Third Age – that is, no longer in full time employment.  It should be educational in its widest sense, including leisure and social pursuits as well as academic interests.

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Once Cambridge U3A was established, the next two cities to launch branches were London and Huddersfield, where a weekly dance class featured strongly. 

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